Your Home Day Care Policies - Enrollment Information and Trial Periods

For many new home day care providers, the top reason of over-all failure is the failure to develop clear day care policies, hand-book and agreement. The honeymoon phase kicks in and somewhere amid all the excitement of setting up their new business, new providers either totally forget to lay out their procedures, or throw together a one page 'contract' that simply won't cut the mustard in the real world of parents and day care kids.

Needless to say, it is imperative that you provide to your child care parents written policies and procedures. Make sure they read the entire document and sign it before you take the child into your day care.

What are some of the basic documents and information that you should collect for each child in your care?

Enrollment form containing the child's full name, address and phone number.
Parents' full name, address, home/cell phone, work phone
Child's date of birth and age.
Three Emergency contact names and phone numbers.
Authorized escorts, or people who the parent gives permission to pick up the child.
Special information or provisions to be made for the child.
Start date, or date that you will begin caring for the child.
Medical consent form and/or medical power of attorney

Many states now provide enrollment paperwork for providers when they become licensed.

Trial or probationary period

A very good idea for every home child care provider to consider is incorporating a trial period into their policies. There are always those rare ocassions when either the child, parent or provider will not be happy with the new child care situation. By adding such a clause into your agreement with the parent, you'll be providing an easy out for everyone involved if it becomes obvious that the parent should look for another child care. Most trial periods are two weeks long and the agreement can be terminated any time during the trial period. Once the two weeks is up, then your long-term child care contract termination policy will be effect.